Tariff-book.



P. W. BACON.

TARIF? BooK. y APPLICATION FILED JULY 25, 1912.

1,074,684. Patented 001.11913.

2 SHEETS-sum1. 0

F. W. BACON.

TARIFF BOOK.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 25, 1912.

1,074,684, Patented 0015.7, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

FRANK WILLIAM BACON, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

TARIFE-BOOK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 7, 1913.

i Application led July 25, 1912. Serial No. 711,568.

To all whomz' may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK IV. BACON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Tariff-Book, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a book designed for use by railroad conductors and other ofiicials or persons who requir-e to ascertain the fare and distance between stations along the line, and the main object of the invention is to provide a book so constructed that by proper manipulationsuch that by simply opening the book, the fare and distance between any two places may be innnediately seen.

I'Ieretofore, so far as I am aware, the only methods for obtaining distances and fares between stations, is by means of tables and the tracing out of the stations and properly locating the distances relating thereto, was very difficult and mistakes were easily made, all of which is avoided by the present invention.

The device while especially adapted for railroad officials, may also be used to advantage in any situation where it is desired to ascertain quickly the distance between places on a route, or the rate for any place on a route or circuit.

Referring to the drawings: Figure l is a front elevation, showing the book open and about to be used. Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. l, showing the leaves turned to give the distance. Fig. 3 is an enlarged section on line 3-x3, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of a leaf in detail. Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4, of another leaf. Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. t, of another leaf. Fig. 7 is a. plan view of a portion of a leaf on the lower half of the book. Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 of another similar leaf. Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. 7, of another similar leaf. Fig. 10, is a plan view of the central portion of the book, showing portions of both upper and lower leaves and illustrating a branch road. v

The book is preferably of pocket size, as indicated and consists of two covers l and 2, united by suitable means 3, and filled with a set of upper leaves 4 and lower leaves 5. I refer to the leaves in this manner as it will facilitate the description. The leaves are fastened in the book in any desired manner.

" stations seen are those on a division of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles to Yuma. The stations are arranged in the order which they occupy on the division, Los Angeles being on the first line at the top of the upper pages, and Yuma being located on one of the lower pages. The first upper leaf 6 is printed with the first station, viz., Los Angeles. The next upper leaf 7 is printed with the name of the neXt station on the division, viz., Dolgeville The third upper leaf 8 is printed with the third4 station on the division, viz., Alhambra, and so on, continuing through the upper leaves, including the station Durbrow which is located on the last of the Lipper leaves 9. The station cMeca is printed on the first sheet l0al of the lower leaves and the remaining stations of the division are printed on the subsequent lower leaves. The first leaf 6 is cut away below the name Los Angeles, so that only the left portion thereof remains. The second sheet 7 is cut away below the name Dolgeville so that only the left half of that sheet remains, and the third sheet 8 is also cut away below the name Alhambra, so that all the left portion of that sheet remains, and the remainder of the upper sheets are similarly cut away until the last sheet 9 which contains the station Durbrow which is the last one on the upper leaves and need not be cut away, for there are no more stations beneath it to be seen on the upper leaves. This manner of cutting away the sheets, reveals the names of all of the stations at a glance, each station having a separate leaf. Referring to the lower sheets, the first sheet l0 containing the station Meca is cut away below the word Meca and the subsequent sheets are out away in the same manner, similar to the -upper sheets et. The two sheets 6 and 10i1 constitute virtually a single sheet when the book is opened out, the sheets 7 and 11 which lie neXt under sheets 6 and 10a also constitute virtually a single sheet when opened out, and so do sheets S and 12 in like manner. and the remaining sheets are .arranged in the same way. The first sheet 6 containing the station Los Angeles at the top is ruled off with horizontal lines 13 which form horizontal columns designated 14, which aline with the respective stations. Thus column 14 alines with Los Angeles, column 14a alines with Dolgeville, column 14h alines with Alhambra, columnV 14 alines with San Gabriel, and so on. Column 1/l1 which is formed on the lower leaf 10 alines with Meca and so on. The sheets 6 and 10 and subsequent pairs of sheets are also ruled with vertical lines 15 which form a series of vertical columns 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. The particular arrangement in these columns may be varied, but I prefer to place in the column 16, the fare, in the column 17, changed fare, in column 18, half fare in column 19, the miles from the top station to the bottom station, and in column 20, the miles from the bottom station to the top station. At the right of each station name is a column 21 which contains the station number. Thus taking Los Angeles, its station number in column 21 is 484, the fare is 0 the half fare is 0, the miles from Los Angeles is of course 0, while the miles from Yuma in column 20 is 252. Still following` Fig. 1, the station F rink is numbered 656 as given in column 21, the fare from Los Angeles is $6.15, the half fare is $3.08, the miles from Los Angeles is 174 and the miles from Yuma is 78.

Now, let it be assumed that a person gets on the train at Colton and tells the conductor that he desires to pay his fare to Iris. The conductor first opens the book at the middle so that it opens as shown in Fig. 1. He then places his thumb, as indicated, on the sheet containing the name of the station from which the fare is to be paid, and then with a movement of the hand still grasping the book, flips the book so that all of the upper leaves l which lie above the sheet containing Colton fly over and fall upon the bottom portion of the book. In the present instance ten sheets are thus flipped over to the bottom of the book, which sheets respectively contain the names of stations as follows: Ontario, Pomona, Lemon, Puente, Bassett, Monte, San Gabriel, Alhambra, Dolgeville and Los Angeles. The book then shows as in Fig. 2, and the only operation required to produce this, being to simply place the thumb on the station from which the fare is to be paid and flip the overlying pages down onto the bottom part of the book. This having been done, the conductor glances down the list of stations until his ey'e reaches t-he name Iris which is the' name of the station to which thepassenger stated he wished to pay his fare. The conductor glances at column 16 and immediately no- -tices that the fare is $5.15. This opera-V tion requires obviously less than a seconds time, and its advantage over the old method of tracing out long lines of numbers and intersecting columns is apparent. Now, with the book in the position shown in Fig. 2, attention is called to the fact that on the reverse side of the uppermost leaf l as turned over, is printed the names of the Vstations which would otherwise be visible immediately below the right-hand portion of that leaf. Thus that leaf which -I have designated 21, on its obverse side contains the station Ontario and the righthand portion of the leaf when flipped over onto the lower part of the book, would obscure several stations, viz., Ruthven, Drylym Cactus, Cgilby, Knob, Hanlon Jet, and Yuma, and therefore, those stations have been printed on the reverse side of said sheet 21, so that when that sheet is flipped over, thosev seven stations appear to the view. leaf has printed on the reverse side of its right-hand portion, the names of all of the stations which would Vbe Vvisible at such points when the sheet is turned over ontothe bottom part of the book. The upper sheets are not printed with anything above the name of the station for which they stand, thus, the sheet containing the station Colton 7 is not printed with any station above that station because that portion of the sheet is not used, but the reverse side of this part of the sheet would be printed with the names of stations from 699 to 733.

I provide a lblank column 17, in which the conductor may write the corrected or changed fare for any station. Thus if the railroad changes the fare from a given point to a certain station, it is possible to correct the fare in the book without disfguring the book, for example, suppose the fare from Los Angeles to Pomona has been changed from $.99 to $95. The conducto-r simply crosses out in column 1 6, the figure .99 and writes the ligure .95 in column 17, as indicated in Fig. 1. I have also indicated how the fare from Los Angeles to Monte may be changed from $.39 to $.35. The use of the half fare column is obvious. If the person paying the fare is to pay a half fare, the conductor ascertains the half fare from column 1S instead of reading full fare from column 16 and in the example before given, the half fare from Colton to Iris would be $2.58. If it be desired toV know the mileage from any given station to eitherV terminal of the division, it can be ascertained In each instance each upper from columns 19 or 20. Thus if it be desired to know the mileage from Colton to Iris, column '19 shows the mileage to be 133. 1f it be desired to know the mileage from iris to Yuma, column 20 gives the mileage as 59, this being found from the book as opened for Colton as in Fig. 2. lf it be desired to ascertain the distance from Los Angeles to any point on the division, or from Los Angeles to Yuma, the book will be open as in Fig. 1, and the miles will be found in columns 19 or 20, opposite the name of the station. No mental computation is necessary in any of the foregoing.

Assume that it is desired to ascertain the fare from Acolita to Knob. The conductor will first open the book as shown in Fig. 1, to reveal all of the stations. He will then place his thumb on the sheet containing the number 691 which is the sheet containing the station Acolita 7 and will then give the book a slight jerk which will flip all of the lower sheets which lie above the sheet containing Acolita onto the upper part of the book, an operation the reverse of that in the previous example ofiven, and when the leaves have thus been flipped over, he will see at a glance,.the fare from Acolita to Knob, the amount of fare being given in column 16 opposite the word Knob The drawings do not show this example, but it will be readily understood.

Figs. 1, 5 and 6 show the detail construction of the three uppermost leaves 6, 'l and 8. Fig. 7 shows the detail construction of leaf 10 which lies immediately above leaf 10 and is the companion leaf to leaf 6 for Los Angeles. Fig. S shows the detail of the sheet containing Meca and Fig. 9 shows the detail sheet containing Kaleb. Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but broken away at top and bottom and illustrates a branch road which extends from Calexico to Imperial Jct. This branch of the division is always obtained by placing the thumb on the sheet containing Imperial Jet, 668, and then flipping the leaves open to bring the stations as in Fig. 10, by which fares and distances are readily seen.

What I claim is:

1. A tariff book comprising a plurality of leaves, the leaves being in two sets on opposite sides of the hinge line of the boo-k, the leaves of each setV having horizontal columns bearing indications of the amounts of fare from a station to other stations, said leaves of both sets being cut away on the same side to form alined marginal stepped tab portions bearing on obverse and reverse faces the names of the stations, the stepped marginal tab portions of the two leaves presented to view on each side of the hinge line when the book is opened at any point descending in the same direction and presenting the names of the stations in consecutive order.

2. A tariff book comprising a plurality of leaves, the leaves being in two sets on opposite sides of the hinge line of the book, the leaves of each set having horizontal columns bearing indications of the amounts of fare from a station to other stations, said leaves of both sets being cut away on the same side to form alined marginal stepped tab portions bearing on obverse and reverse faces the names of the stations, the stepped marginal tab portions of the two leaves presented to view on each side of the hinge line when the book is opened at any point descending in the same direction and presenting the names of the stations in consecutive order, the reverse face of those leaves which lie intermediate the terminal stations bearing the names of stations concealed by a leaf of a set when that leaf is folded on top of the other leaf of that set.

3. A tariff book-comprising a plurality of leaves, the leaves being in two sets on opposite sides of the hinge line of the book, the leaves of each set having horizontal columns bearing indications of the amounts of fare from one station to other sta-tions, said leaves of both sets being cut away on the same side to form alined marginal stepped tab portions bearing on obverse and reverse fac-es the names of the stations, the stepped marginal tab portions of the two leaves presented to view on each side of the hinge line when the book is opened at any point descending in the same direction and presenting the names of the stations in consecutive order, the said names of stations being arranged in line with the respective horizontal columns containing designations of fare, said leaves also having vertical columns with designations of the miles between the respective stations and terminal, each of said mileage designations being located in a horizontal column in line withf the `name of the station corresponding to that mileage from the terminal station.

4. A tariii1 book hinged in the middle and containing a plurality of leaves, the leaves being cut away on the same side to form alined marginal stepped tab portions, said tab portions bearing on obverse and reverse faces the names of stations, said names being arranged parallel to the hinge line of the book, the leaves of the book when opened presenting to view a continuous line of the station names, the said line of names eX- tending uninterruptedly across the hinge line of the book.

5. A tariff book hinged in the middle and containing a plurality of leaves, the leaves being cut away on the same side to form alined marginal stepped tab portions, said tab portions bearing on obverse and reverse faces the names of stations, said names being arranged parallel to the hinge line of the book, the leaves of the book when opened presenting to view a continuous line of the station names, the said line of names extending uninterruptedly across the hinge line of the book, the leaves being provided with horizontal columns extending parallel to the hinge line of the book, one of said columns being in line with the name ofthe station on that leaf, the other horizontal columns on that leaf being in line with respective names of stati-ons on other leaves, each leaf also containing vertical columns at right angles tothe hinge line of the book, a vertical column containing indications of fares in line with the respective horizontal columns and with the other stations alined therewith.

6. A tari'lf book hinged in the middle and containing a plurality of leaves, the leaves being cut away on the same side to form alined marginal stepped tab portions, said tab portions bearing on obverse and reverse faces the names of stations, said names being arranged parallel to the hinge line of the book, the leaves of the book when opened presenting to view a continuous line of the station names, the said line of names eX- tending uninterruptedly across the hinge line of the book, the leaves being provided with horizontal columns extending parallel to the hinge line of the boo-k, one of said columns being in line with the name of the station on that leaf, the other horizontal columns on that leaf being in line with respective names of stations on other leaves, each leaf also containing vertical columns at right angles to the hinge line of the book, a vertical column containing indications of fares in line with the respective horizontal columns and with the other stations alined therewith, a vertical column also being blank in which may be written a changed fare.

7. A tariff book comprising a plurality of said leaves being cut, away on the sameV side to form alined marginal stepped tab por tions bearing on obverse andreverse faces the names of the stations, the stepped marginal tab portions of the two Vleaves presented to view on each side of the hinge line when the book is opened at any point descending in the same directionV and presenting the names of the stations in consecutive order, a leaf in said bookV having on it in consecutive order the names of stations on a branch of the division, one of said branch names being the junction point which appears to view as one of the regular stations of the division, the other names of said branch stations being con cealed by the other leaves of the book. Y

8. A tariff book hinged inthe middle and containing a plurality of leaves, the leaves being cut away on the same side to form alined marginal stepped tab portions, said tab portions bearing on obverse and reverse faces the names of stations, said'names being arranged parallel to the hingelineV of the book, the leaves of the book when opened presenting to view a continuous line' of the station names, the said line Vof names extending uninterruptedly acrossV thewhinge line of the book, each leaf having al vertical column containing designations of distances of respective stations from one terminal and another vertical column containing designa# tions of distances between respectiveY sta' tions and the other terminal.

ln testimony whereof, l have hereunto set my hand at Los Angeles, California, this 19th day of July, 1912.

FRANK XVILLIAM BACON., In presence of` Gf T. HAOKLEY, MARTHA M. LANGE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

' Washington,- D. C. Y 

